If you’ve been binge-watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix in the run-up to its revival — maybe for the first time, maybe for the 17th, who’s counting — you may have noticed something weird. The main thumbnail image for the show, which appears on the browser and also as a placeholder while each new episode is loading, does not feature either of the show’s main characters, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore.

Instead, Netflix seems to think that the show Gilmore Girls is mostly about Milo Ventimiglia as Stars Hollow’s resident rebel without a cause Jess Mariano. Jess doesn’t even appear until the second season, which must make things especially confusing for first-time viewers.

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One of these things is not like the others. Let’s scroll along to the next panel of my Continue Watching list.

From this, you can glean two things: (1) I start a lot of TV episodes without finishing them because I am fickle and also have seen most of them before, and (2) there is no other show in which a minor character is used as the index image. Buffy the Vampire Slayer? That’s a picture of Buffy Summers. Jessica Jones? Krysten Ritter’s Jessica. Grey’s Anatomy? Meredith Grey. But for Gilmore Girls? Let’s use a picture of this dude who ain’t a Gilmore, or a girl, and also appears in less than a third of the show’s total episodes (37 out of 154, not including the upcoming ones).

Even Dean would have made more sense in terms of total screen time in the show (63 out of 154), and I hate Dean. I actually lean toward Jess if forced to pick between Rory’s three not-that-great boyfriends (mostly because I’m a sucker for unresolved tension) — but even for the most diehard Team Jess fans, he makes absolutely no sense as the show’s defining image. A cursory glance at Twitter confirmed that I am not alone in my confusion.

.@netflix why is the cover photo for Gilmore girls a picture of Jess and not Rory and/or lorelai? It's called Gilmore GIRLS & is about them!— Hannah Frank (@HanFran195) November 6, 2016

It makes me mad that the picture of Gilmore Girls on Netflix is of Jess... Like no this is not about Jess this is about Rory and Lorelai bye— Haylie McLinn (@hayliemclinn) October 27, 2016

There’s a lot more where those came from. I reached out to Netflix to ask what’s up, and while they politely declined to comment on this specific instance, they pointed me toward a blog post about how they choose index images. Unsurprisingly, they put a lot of thought into it, and thumbnails go through an extensive testing process to determine which gets most users to click through.

"We now have the unique ability to understand how to most effectively tell our members why a story is right for them - all through a single image," writes Nick Nelson in a blog post. Which is awesome - except that it makes no sense in this instance. Like this image of a handsome dude in a denim jacket standing in front of indistinct greenery? Then you'll love this show about the nuanced relationship between a single mom and her teenage daughter!

This is no shade on Milo Ventimiglia or his excellent face, which under ordinary circumstances I'd be happy to look at whenever. But it's not as if he's a huge name with star power, and Gilmore Girls is a show that shines specifically because of its focus on relationships between women - not just Lorelai and Rory's endlessly engaging bond, but Lorelai's wary, occasionally heartbreaking dynamic with her own mother Emily, or Rory's delightfully spiky and weird friendship with Paris Gellar.

Is Jess really the image that inspired most Netflix users to watch Gilmore Girls? Did Netflix test numerous thumbnail options including the more obvious shots of Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, only to discover that what you really need to sell a show about women is a picture of a dude? This is just plain sad to contemplate — and it also doesn’t seem to make sense, given that Buffy, Jessica, Meredith etc. are front and center in the thumbnails for their own shows.

The other possibility, of course, is that Netflix is doing some not-all-that-subtle subliminal messaging to try and steer us all onto the Jess path in the run-up to A Year in the Life, because Rory is going to end up with Jess. I’m choosing to go with that theory, at least until Nov. 25.